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Kojiro Kaneda
Overview Kojiro Kaneda was a Dranish politician of the right-wing Grand National Party formerly serving as Prime Minister of Dranland. Life and Politics Kaneda was born in 3409 in Y Cymoedd, one of the largest and most economically thriving cities in Magadonia. His father was a doctor and his mother a college professor, whose influence paved his way toward an academic career. From 3427 to 3433, he studied law in Comares (Elbian Province), obtaining his PhD summa cum laude. He then became a post-doctoral research fellow on the campus and worked in that position until 3445, when he was elected to the Elbian assembly. There, he soon climbed up the ranks and became leader of the provincial Grand National Party branch. Originally aligning with the traditionalist, he began to embrace libertarian ideals soon, and shifted over to the minarchist faction of the GNP. In 3449, he was elected to Parliament for his home constituency in Magadonia on a small-government and free-market platform. In January 3450, only a few months after his first term as an MP had started, he became Minister of Internal Affairs in the government of Melissa Hargreaves (Popular Party). During his term as Minister, Kaneda also tried to appeal to the Kyo minority to support the GNP after many Kyo had flocked to the moderate nationalist Gukmindang. He tried to distinguish between libertarianism and social liberalism to rally support among that mostly traditionalist community: "Clearly we are suffering from distortions of the idea of libertarianism, which, contrary to popular belief, simply means getting the government out of your way and not championing the likes of homosexuality, smoking weed and despising conservative ideals. In the GNP, we have many notable proponents who hold deeply traditionalist values at their core, and believe that the state, whenever it intervenes in the sphere of private autonomy, tends to infringe and damage these values. They believe in free, self-determined communities where the values of decency, modesty,traditional family and religion are upheld and preserved, without government trying to impose what they consider 'modern' or 'progressive'. Of course, the right to live according to their personal values must also apply to gay people and non-religious citizens, however this should not be interpreted as an endorsement of homosexuality or atheism. What we are trying to achieve is to allow the people to make use of their individual freedom as they will without different groups trying to compete for abusing the state to coerce other people into believing in their ideals. Anti-statism is truly the most consequent and coherent way when it comes to preserving traditional values and customs." After his term as Interior Minister, he briefly switched back to the backbenches before becoming Minister for Foreign Affairs in a short-lived PGR-led right-wing cabinet. In that capacity, he rebutted aggression from the part of Egelion towards Dranland: "The Dranish government has never even contemplated the idea of using our nuclear stock for a strike against Egelion, and there has never been a statement of any government official suggesting otherwise - unlike what their officials tell the world, Egelion does not have a 'Dranland problem', because they are the ones who provoked tensions to arise in the first place." In June 3456, when Herman Boxhall declined to assume that role, Kaneda became Leader of the Opposition against the leftist government of Carlos Kim, which rolled back many of the lax laws on drugs, alcohol and gambling upheld by the GNP and also massively increased taxes and spending, all of which was strongly opposed by Kaneda. Despite initial mutual sympathy, Kaneda often clashed with fellow Kyo Haneul Han, the leader of Gukmindang, who backed the Kim government and supported its leftist policies. Kaneda often criticized and derided his proclaimed 'centrist' approach to economic issues: "Centrism, common sense, third way - how often have politicians of all parties used these seemingly noble ideas to appeal to the electorate? Countless times for sure, but for us it must be clear that in order to attain freedom for the individual, freedom for communities and freedom of the market we must reject these dull phrases of middle ground and balanced approaches, for we believe that either there is liberty or there is some variant of statism. Han in turn labeled Kaneda a "dangerous anarchist", while Kaneda called the Gukmindang "anti-business" and "fake conservative". In the snap elections of 3458, Kaneda led the GNP to a victory by taking a plurality with 24% of the vote. He demanded budget and tax cuts for a coalition, but was forced to remain in opposition when the left-leaning parties teamed up again. After three more years as opposition leader, he led his party to another victory in 3461, although with a reduced share of voters. Nevertheless, he managed to form a a majority government together with PP and Green Progressives which moved on to massively reduce spending and taxes as one of its first measures. Although it initially struggled to liberalize the economy, Kaneda's government later managed to implement privatizations and liberalizations that appealed to the GNP base in particular. On the other hand, Kaneda teamed up with the opposition to impose more restrictions on abortion, which dismayed his liberal coalition partners. Ahead of the 3465 elections, Kaneda vowed to fight for continuing the coalition with Greens and PP and expressed opposition to an alliance with the newly-formed Dranish Conservative Party. However, the elections brought a victory for the socially conservative parties, which led to the resignation of Kaneda as GNP Chairman. As Prime Minister, he led a caretaker government until 3467 but remained silent on policy issues. Category:Dranian people Category:Grand National Party (Dranland) politicians